Combinatorics

1. Let n =231 319. How many positive integer divisors of n2 are less than n but do not divide n?
2. In an arena, each row has 199 seats. One day ,1990 students are coming to attend a soccer match. It
is only known that at most 39 students are from the same school. If students from the same school
must sit in the same row, determine the minimum number of rows that must be reserved for these
students.
3. Let T = {9k|K is an integer, 0 ≤ k ≤ 4000}. Given that 94000 has 3817 digits and that its first (leftmost)
digit is 9, how many elements of T have 9 as their leftmost digit ?
4. Determine, with proof, if it is possible to arrange 1, 2,.....,1000 in a row such that the average of any
pair of distinct numbers is not located in between the two numbers .
5. Each square of 1998 × 2002 chess board contains either 0 or 1 such that total number of squares
containing 1 is odd in each row and each column. Prove that the number of while unit squars
containing 1 is even.
6. Show that given any 17 numbers it is possible to choose 5 whose sum is divisible by 5.
7. How many 7 digit numbers are there such that the digit are distinct integer taken from the set S = {1,
2,…., 9} and such that the integers 5 and 6 do not appear consecutively in either order?
8. How many ways are there to place 2 identical kings on an 8 × 8 chessborad so that kings are not
adjacent squares ? On an n × m chess borad ?
9. Given integers 1, 2, 3,…., 11 two groups (not necessarily disjoint) are selected ; the first group
contains 5 integers and second group contains 2 integers. How many ways, allowing repetitions, can
the selection be made if
(i) there are no further conditions
(ii) each group contains either all odd integers or all even integers?
10. How many ways are there to invite 1 of 3 friends over for dinner on 6 successive nights such that no
friends is invited more than 3 times?
 Answers Key
1. (589) 2. (12) 3. (184) 4. ()
5. () 6. () 7. (151200) 8. (2  8  [8C2 – 7])
15 12  10  6  10  7   9  7   9  6 
9.    ,    +    +    +   
 5  2   5  2   5  2   5  2   5  2 
10. 6  6!/l!2!3! + 3  6!/3!3! + 6!/2!2!2!.

Video Solution Links

1 https://youtu.be/bHqMnUxVw3w
2 https://youtu.be/CV9BeWSdMBE
3 https://youtu.be/n6Vy_lWbptI
4 https://youtu.be/YJuR-AMUl6w
5 https://youtu.be/F4o29oSM-jU
6 https://youtu.be/QIxOkT0LP3w
7 https://youtu.be/ZVebi6c2CFQ
8 https://youtu.be/174_b5iTMzU
9 https://youtu.be/pwMjpMAcAIU
10 https://youtu.be/vogXIEpYOX4

Solutions
1. Let n =231 319. How many positive integer divisors of n2 are less than n but do not divide n?
Sol. Let n = prqs, where p and q are distinct primes. Then n2 = p2rq2s,
so n2 has (2r + l)(2s+ 1) factors.
For each factor less than n. there is a corresponding factor greater than n. By excluding the factor n,
we see that there must be
(2r + 1)(2s + 1) − 1
= 2rs + r + s
2
factors of n2 that are less than n. Because n has (r + l)(s + 1) factors (including n itself), and because
every factor of n is also a factor of n2, there are
2rs + r + s - [(r + l)(s + 1) - 1] = rs
factors of n2 that are less than n but not factors of n. When r = 31 and s = 19, there are rs = 589 such
factors.
2. In an arena, each row has 199 seats. One day ,1990 students are coming to attend a soccer match. It
is only known that at most 39 students are from the same school. If students from the same school
must sit in the same row, determine the minimum number of rows that must be reserved for these
students.
Sol. Since 199 is a prime, we consider 200. Its largest divisor not exceeding 39 is 25. Note that 1990 = 79
 25 + 15. If 79 schools send 25 students each and one school sends 15 students, it will take at least

79 / 199 / 25  = 12 rows to seat all the students. We now prove that 12 rows are enough. Start

seating the students school by school and row by row, filling all the seats of the first 10 rows, even if
students from some schools are split between two rows. This can happen to at most 9 schools.
Remove the students from those schools and pack them into two rows. This is possible since each
row can hold students from at least 5 schools as 5  39 = 195 < 199.
3. Let T = {9k|K is an integer, 0 ≤ k ≤ 4000}. Given that 94000 has 3817 digits and that its first (leftmost)
digit is 9, how many elements of T have 9 as their leftmost digit ?
Sol. Note that 9k has one more digit than 9k-1 except in the case when 9k starts with a 9. In the latter case,
long division shows that 9k-1 starts with a 1 and has the same number of digits as 9k. Therefore, when
the powers of 9 from 90 to 94000 are computed there are 3816 increases in the number of digits. Thus
there must be 4000 – 3816 = 184 instances when computing 9k from 9k-1 (1  k 4000) does not
increase the number of digits. Since 90 = 1 does not have leading digit 9 we can conclude that 9k (1 
k  4000) has a leading digit of 9 exactly when there is no increase in the number of digits in
computing 9k from 9k-1. It follows that 184 of the numbers must start with the digit 9.
4. Determine, with proof, if it is possible to arrange 1, 2,.....,1000 in a row such that the average of any
pair of distinct numbers is not located in between the two numbers .
Sol. We claim that that it is possible to arrange 1, 2, .....n in a row such that the average of any pair of
distinct numbers is not located in between the two numbers.
We first prove that this is true for n = 2m for all positive integers m. We induct on m. The base m = 1
is trivial.
Now we assume that we can arrange 1, 2,. ..., 2m, for some positive integer m, in a row (a1, a2,... ,a2m)
such that the average of any pair of distinct numbers is not located in between the two numbers. It is
not difficult to see that
(b1, b2, .. .,, b2m+1) = (2a1 - l, 2a2 – 1....., 2a2m - 1, 2a1,2a2.....2a2m)
 is an arrangement of the numbers 1, 2, ... , 2m+1 satisfying the conditions of the problem. Indeed, the
average of a pair of numbers bi and bj with either l  i  j  2m or 2m + l  i < j  2m+l is not located
between the two numbers by the induction hypothesis, and the average of a pair of numbers bi and bj
with 1  i  2m < j  2m+l is not an integer. Our induction is thus complete.
For a positive integer n that is not a power of 2, we can always find a positive integer m such that n <
2m. We first arrange the numbers 1, 2……, 2m in the desired fashion and then delete all the numbers
that are larger than n to obtain an arrangement of the numbers 1,2.....n satisfying the conditions of
the problem.
5. Each square of 1998 × 2002 chess board contains either 0 or 1 such that total number of squares
containing 1 is odd in each row and each column. Prove that the number of while unit squars
containing 1 is even.
Sol. Let (i, j), 1  i  1998 and 1  j  2002 denote the unit square in the ith row and jth column, and let ai,j
denote the number in (i, j). A square (i, j) is white if and only if i and j have the same parity. By the
given conditions, the sum
999 2002
R odd =   a 2i −1, j
i =1 j=1

is the sum of all the numbers in the 999 odd rows. i.e. Rodd is odd as it is the sum of 999 odd
numbers. Likewise, sum of all the numbers in even columns
10011998
Ceven =  a 2 j,i
j=1 i =1

is also odd as it is the sum of 1001 odd numbers. Let B denote the set of all the black squares in the
even columns, and let S(B) denote the sum of the numbers in the squares in set B. Note that the
numbers in each of the squares in B appears exactly once in the sum Rodd. Note also that the numbers
in each of the squares in B appear exactly once in the sum Ceven. Finally, note that each of the
numbers in the white square appears exactly once in combined sum Rodd + Ceven. Thus, the total of
the numbers of the white unit squares is Rodd + Ceven – 2S(B). which is even. Therefore, the number
of white unit squares containing 1 is even.
6. Show that given any 17 numbers it is possible to choose 5 whose sum is divisible by 5.
Sol. Any number has a remainder of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 when divided by 5. If among the 17 chosen numbers
there are 5 whose remainders are 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4. then their sum has remainder 0 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4.
Hence their sum is divisible by 5.
Suppose then that among the 17 numbers only 4 of the remainders are possible. By the pigeonhole
 principle one of these remainders must occur at least 5 times. Choose 5 numbers with the same
remainder and their sum is divisible by 5.
7. How many 7 digit numbers are there such that the digit are distinct integer taken from the set S =
{1, 2,…., 9} and such that the integers 5 and 6 do not appear consecutively in either order?
Sol. We first find the number n1 of 7-permulaiions of the 9-elemenl set S which do contain 56 or 65.
Consider 7 places as follows:
a b c d e f g
There are 6 pairs of consecutive places, namely ab, bc, ..., fg in which we can place 56 or 65. Thus
each of 56 and 65 can be placed in 6 ways. In each case there are P57 ways of filling the remaining 5
places. Hence n1 = 2  6  P57. Also, the number of 7-permutaiions of S is n2 = P79. So, the number
of required permutations is n2 – n1 = = 151200.
8. How many ways are there to place 2 identical kings on an 8 × 8 chessborad so that kings are not
adjacent squares ? On an n × m chess borad ?
Sol. A row can be chosen in 8 ways. In a row, there are in all 8C2 pairs of squares of which 7 are pairs of
adjacent squares. So there are [8C2 – 7) pairs of places in any of which the two identical kings can be
placed. Hence the kings can be placed in a row in 8  [8C2 – 7] ways and in the same number of
ways in a column. So the total number of ways is 2  8  [8C2 – 7]. For an n  m board, the number
is n[mC2 – (m – 1)] + m[nC2 – (n – 1)).
9. Given integers 1, 2, 3,…., 11 two groups (not necessarily disjoint) are selected ; the first group
contains 5 integers and second group contains 2 integers. How many ways, allowing repetitions, can
the selection be made if
(i) there are no further conditions
(ii) each group contains either all odd integers or all even integers?
11 − 1 + 5  15 
Sol. (i) The first group G1 of 5 integers from the 11 integers can be chosen in   =   ways.
 5   5

11 − 1 + 2  12 
Similarly, the group G2 of 2 integers from the 11 integers can be chosen in   =   ways.
 2   2

15  12 
Therefore, the two groups G1 and G2 can be chosen in      ways.
 5  2
(ii) We have 4 mutually exclusive cases: (a) G1 all odd, G2 all even (b) G1 all odd, G2 all odd (c) G1
all even, G2 all odd (d) G1 all even, G2 all even.
 Hence the total number of ways is
10  6  10  7   9  7   9  6 
   +    +    +   
 5  2   5  2   5  2   5  2 
10. How many ways are there to invite 1 of 3 friends over for dinner on 6 successive nights such that no
friends is invited more than 3 times?
Sol. Let x, y, z be the friends and let (a, b, c) denote the case where x is invited a times, y b times and z c
times. For example, one possible arrangement corresponding to the triplet (3,2,1) is
x, x, y, x, y, z
Then we have the following possibilities: (i) (a, b, c) = (1, 2, 3); (1, 3, 2); (2, 3, 1); (2, 1, 3); (3, 1, 2);
(3, 2, 1). (ii) (a, b, c) = (3, 3, 0); (3, 0, 3); (0, 3, 3). (iii) (a, b, c) = (2, 2, 2). So the total number of
ways is 6  6!/l!2!3! + 3  6!/3!3! + 6!/2!2!2!.